(Fox News) – Charles Manson, the hippie cult leader who became the hypnotic- eyed face of evil across America after orchestrating the gruesome murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles during the summer of 1969, died Sunday after nearly a half-century in prison.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement Manson died of natural causes at 8:13 p.m. Sunday at Kern County hospital,